Situated in the dense theater district of Midtown West, ARO demonstrates a keen awareness to its surrounding context, utilizing approaches in massing and exterior expression to create a contemporary urban living environment. At 62-stories tall, ARO responds to site and zoning constraints, revealing solutions that maximize floor area, outdoor access and amplified views. Shaping of the form reflects changes in unit mixes, with larger units occupying the top of the building and smaller units occupying the bottom.
At the building’s podium level, cascading layers of amenities with multi-level openings offer increased opportunities for interaction. A deceptively simple envelope pattern provides a singular graphic that emphasizes the shifts in building form, visibly expressing its complex programmatic, contextual and structural challenges at a macro level. Six module types shift the building skin’s two layers both in parallel and independently, creating additional opportunities for occupiable space and differentiating living experiences throughout the building.